December 11, 2006

THE VISION THING

For Venus, utopia would consist of alfalfa cubes, grain, and lots of illicit flowers and ornamental shrubs to eat. And fences to jump over. And perhaps an occasional visit from a gentleman caller.

A while back, El Cabrero received a challenge from a Goat Rope reader who is by no means shy about kicking his butt when she thinks it needs it (a not altogether infrequent occurrence).

It has to do with what the first President Bush called "the vision thing." Specifically, the challenge was to try to answer the question of what a just society would look like as a way of thinking about how to get there.

I think she'd like others to take up the challenge too.

In the next few posts, I'm going to rassle with that.

For starters, I'd recommend looking at last Friday's post on Franklin Delano Roosevelt's--peace be unto him--call for a Second Bill of Rights that includes things like a good education, housing, jobs with living wages, health care, etc. Keeping the first Bill of Rights would probably be a good idea too.

Here's a disclaimer though. Somewhere a long the way, and mostly during the last five or six years, I lost all my remaining utopianism. I'd be glad if things weren't awful.

It's kind of like thinking your life bites and then getting a toothache--it puts things in a whole new perspective.